Does the Shape of a Bong Matter?

Does the shape of your bong actually matter? A time-honored question. Growing up, we all just got our hands on whatever bong was easiest to hide. Now that we’re older, though, our tastes have developed to include far more lavish designs with intricate shapes and colors. And to answer our earlier question: yes! The shape of your bong does in fact make a difference. Let us walk you through some of the different bong shapes and how they can affect your smoking experience.

The Straight Tube

The straight tube is one the most straightforward (get it?) bongs you can buy. The formula is relatively simple: smoke fills the chamber quickly. The submerged downstem pulls the smoke through the water and into the chamber. Once the choke is pulled, the chamber can be emptied just as fast with a single hefty toke.

Beaker Style

While some bong shapes provide better hits for the user, others offer more practical advantages. Beaker bongs, like most other styles, are named after the very shape they emulate. They take on the style of glassware you might find in a lab. Beaker bongs are made with a wide, heavy base which makes them far sturdier than their straight-styled counterparts. Because of the wide base, these bongs are able to hold more smoke which will ultimately lead to bigger, heavier hits.

Round Base Bongs

Similar to beaker bongs, round base bongs offer the user a much steadier design than some of the other options out there on the market today. Like a beaker bong, the base is designed to be much wider than your average glass piece. Again, this will lead to more smoke accumulated within the chamber and ultimately to larger hits once the smoke finally reaches your lungs.

Bubblers

What’s a bubbler, you ask? Well, bubblers are something of a cross between your run-of-the-mill hand pipe and a conventional glass bong. Because of their moderate size, bubblers tend to be much more portable than some of your other types of bongs. They come in intricate shapes that offer the user varying levels of smoke intake (generally based on the size of the piece). This shape usually results in a hit that’s slightly weaker than most full-sized bongs.

The Zig Zag Bong

Not only are zig zag bongs beyond cool when it comes to their design, but they also serve an important purpose regarding the type of hit you’ll be getting. Let’s paint a little word picture: you’ve just fired up a massive bowl, the water’s bubbling, you can feel the smoke rising out the chamber, and then, BAM—you get just the tiniest hint of bong water in the back of your throat. It’s enough to make almost anybody gag. Lucky for you, you’re using a zig zag bong! The zig zag bong’s one, or multiple, curves will prevent any amount of water from ever making it near the inside of your mouth. The hits tend to be a bit smoother too, because of the paths the smoke has to travel before making it to your lungs.

The Faberge Egg

Most of us might not even know what a Faberge egg is. History lesson: Faberge eggs are the artisanal jeweled eggs that were created by the house of Faberge in St. Petersburg, Russia between 1885 and 1917 for the Imperial family. Basically, these bongs look like slightly oversized decorative eggs. So, what makes them so special? Well, these particular bongs make use of an egg-shaped percolator which allows the bubbles more room to spread out when you’re taking a hit. This makes for an extremely smooth hit when you finally decide to remove that choke and take it all in.

The Recycler Bong

Known more commonly as the multi-chambered bong, recycler bongs tend to be a little more technical than the rest of the ones you’ve seen on this list. These particular bongs run the smoke through the filtration process multiple times before it ever makes it to your lungs. This will result in one of the smoothest hits of any of the bongs we’ve talked about!